Chapter 179

CHAPTER 17 Parasitism and Resurrection The demon soldier’s eccentric behavior and explosion give me a terrible sense of foreboding. I can feel the knot in my stomach. Nevertheless, the demon priests continue the ritual just as Rosalie commanded. “O myriad lives which once belonged to the dragonewts, come and release our lord from her shackles.” They raise their hands to the ceiling as they chant around the magic-sealing stone. However, it isn’t long before their chants come to a halt. Rosalie angrily shouts: “What are you doing?! There is no need to fear! Continue the ritual!” “I-it’s not that! The mana isn’t coming!” “What…? What is the meaning of this, Eraser?!” Rosalie shoots Eraser a stern glare, but he simply shakes his head. “Demon’s Sword slaughtered over one hundred dragonewts during our last expedition. There is no doubt about that.” Right as Eraser finishes his sentence, vile laughter suddenly reverberates throughout the room. “You fool! You’ve never killed a single one!” When I turn around, I see another soldier from Demon’s Sword behind me. He eerily cackles while approaching us just like the one before. Th-there’s still another traitor among us?! “…You too?” But this time, Eraser makes the first move instead of Seiya. He closes in on the soldier in the blink of an eye before unhesitatingly chopping his former subordinate’s head off with his battle-ax. Both demons and humans gasp as fresh violet blood spews into the air. However… “Oooooo. How cruel of you,” the demon soldier says as his head soars through the air, spurting out copious amounts of blood. “Heh. You didn’t even give the poor guy a chance to explain himself.” How is he still speaking?! I-is he being controlled by someone?! It was just as I thought. A snakelike creature slithers out of the severed head. “The dragonewts that you thought you killed were already dead! I simply slipped inside their bodies and moved them around like this!” “Tch.” Eraser grunts, then immediately throws his battle-ax. It spins in the air before hitting the snakelike creature and pinning it to the stone pillar behind it. Eraser approaches the pillar. “Who are you?” “Heh-heh-ho-ho-ho! I am the Parasite Dragon Paradura!” Dragon…? This little thing’s a dragonewt?! The dragonewt Paradura laughs in spite of his crucifixion. His tail squirms about, then immediately another small dragon drops to the floor as if he had just shed his skin. The dragon pinned to the pillar withers away, but the one on the floor cheerfully raises his head. “I’ve finally made it past the force field! And it’s all thanks to you being so stupid and letting my doppelgängers inside!” “Hmph!” Chaos Machina slams her massive sword into the dragonewt slithering on the ground, but even after she flattens his small body, he bursts out in a shrill laugh. “Hee-hee-hee-ha-ha-ha-ha! The days of both mankind and demonkind are over!” Paradura’s body suddenly dries out, and before long, he stops moving completely. I-it looks like he’s dead… Chaos Machina cocks her head back while staring at the second Paradura. “Oh, myyy. He implied that this was his doppelgänger, right? I wonder if that means the real Paradura’s somewhere in town?” “Dammit! Why now…?!” Rosalie groans. Seiya casts a distant gaze at the demons. “You should have quarantined them. I would have thoroughly checked each one of the soldiers for outside illnesses and pests the moment they returned.” Seiya says before snapping his fingers. “I don’t care what happens to this warped world, but I have to protect myself.” Seiya’s body is immediately consumed by deep-red flames. “Who knows where his doppelgängers are hiding? If he can sneak into bodies through their wounds, he might be able to slip inside through the ears or nose as well, so I plan on covering my entire body with fire just in case.” “O-oh, that makes sense…” “I want to light you and Cerceus on fire as well, but you may disintegrate, since your fire resistances are so low.” “…?! Then no, thank you!” “Yeah! No, thank you!” “Fine.” After rummaging through the item pouch, Seiya pulls some things out and hands them to Cerceus. “Huh?! What are these?” “Corks. Use these to block any passageway the enemy might try to enter. Your ears, nostrils, and don’t forget your ass.” “M-My ass, too…?” Seiya, maintaining his overly serious demeanor, approaches me before handing me even more corks than he gave to Cerceus. “Rista, you too. I’m talking nostrils, ear cavities, anus…and your crotch.” “I’d rather die!!” “I’m just looking out for you.” “That would legitimately be the worst thing that ever happened to me! It would be even more embarrassing than what happened to me in the underworld, so if it’s all the same to you, I’ll take my chances with death!” “Sigh… Why are women always so worried about embarrassing themselves? If that parasite gets inside of you, it’ll be too late to save you…” “H-hey, uh… Seiya! I’m a man, but I don’t really wanna use these corks, either!” Seiya glares at Cerceus and me, but eventually, he lets out a brief sigh and creates an Automatic Phoenix. Both Cerceus and I now have a fiery bird flapping over our heads. “Self-Immolation would have given you more protection, but this should give you a basic modicum of defense.” “It’s fine… This is more than enough…” “Just let me know if you want any corks.” “How about you shove ’em up your ass?!” A-at least we’re going to be okay now! But that dragonewt made it sound like his doppelgängers have already snuck inside town through other demon soldiers…which means Nina and the other villagers are in danger! “Rosalie, come on! Let’s go take care of this monster!” I impatiently urge her on, but Rosalie’s eye is still focused on the magic-sealing stone. “Wh-what’s wrong?” “If that dragonewt kills a few more villagers…Lucifer Crowe will finally awaken.” “Huh?! Are you seriously planning on abandoning the villagers?!” “Just a little more… Just a little more and…! And our savior will awaken… Mankind will be saved!” Rosalie mutters like a woman possessed. The demons, surprisingly, are the calm ones. Chaos Machina places a finger on her chin. “He was likely eavesdropping on our conversation, so he probably won’t kill any huuumans if he knows we need a great amount of mana to resurrect Lucifer Crowe. It sounds like he can create copies of himself, so he’s probably going to craaawl inside the villagers and control them.” Rosalie clenches her teeth. “We just need one… We only need one more sacrifice…!” Rosalie glares at the high-ranking humans, who immediately avert their gazes. I can’t sit back and watch this anymore. “Stop this, Rosalie! I won’t let you sacrifice any more people!” “I hear that the holy sword Igzasion that the Dragon Lord wields was birthed from the sacrifice of the one he loved most! The only way to fight darkness is to surrender yourself to darkness as well!” “No, it’s not! We were able to save the world without Igzasion!” “Enough of your lies!” While I’m arguing with Rosalie, I hear a loud voice yell out from behind: “Tch! Then why don’t you become the sacrifice yourself?!” The brazen voice was not Seiya’s but Cerceus’s. What the…? Since when did Cerceus get so manly? …Hold up. When I look back, my jaw drops. Cerceus, despite being massive, is hunched over and trying to make himself smaller so he can hide behind me. However, Rosalie and the demons end up staring at me instead for some reason. Wait a second! Hey?! Now it looks like I’m the one who said that! You cowardly meathead! You shouldn’t have said anything at all if you were going to hide! Eventually, Flashika slowly walks over to Cerceus and me. “I am sorry, but the princess must not be sacrificed.” “H-hey, uh… Flashika? That wasn’t me who said that. That was—” “The princess, the emperor’s own flesh and blood, has a duty to survive on behalf of all mankind.” “Okay. I get that, but…” I pause midsentence when I notice something in Flashika’s hand. It’s a dagger. He looks over at Rosalie and brilliantly smiles before touching the blade to his neck. “Flashika?! No! Don’t…!” But there isn’t even another second to stop him. Flashika resolutely slices his own throat with the dagger. The sound of flesh being carved into echoes as dark red blood spills out. “H-hold on! Let me heal you!” I try to use a healing spell on Flashika as he lies on the ground, but the moment I sit him up…I realize that Flashika’s life has already escaped through the deep wound in his neck. “No…! This can’t be…!” Even in death, he wears a satisfied smile. And yet, Rosalie doesn’t even approach Flashika. She yells to the demon priests: “Now, the time has come to resurrect Lucifer Crowe! Finish the ritual!” Despite having just lost a faithful subject, Rosalie is solely concerned with the resurrection of Lucifer Crowe. It’s as if she herself had turned into a demon after living with them for so long. I shudder. “Wh-what a heartless monster!” Cerceus says before gulping. Just like Cerceus, I feel disgusted by her actions, but there’s something else weighing on my mind as well. Now that I think about it, Seiya’s been awfully quiet, especially after what just happened. Flashika has departed, and the demon priests are in the process of resurrecting Lucifer Crowe. That’s when I notice that Seiya’s squatting over the area where Paradura was killed. “What are you doing? …S-S-Seiya?!” The instant I walk over, something immediately feels off to me. Seiya looks like he shrank. I must just be seeing things! There’s no way Seiya, who’s over 180 centimeters tall, is smaller than me! “Seiya?! Is it just me, or did you shrink?!” “Technically, I’ve separated myself.” “Huh?!” I jump…because I hear the same voice talking to me from behind. I swiftly turn around to find another Seiya standing behind me! And he’s just as small as the other one! As my lips quiver, the two Seiyas stand side by side before me. Then in the blink of an eye, they become a blur as if I were seeing double, only to have separated once more! Each one of the four Seiyas is shorter than the last two and reach only my waist. “Wh-wh-wh-wha—?!” Even Cerceus’s jaw drops as he stands by my side. He asks: “S-Seiya… Did you copy that dragonewts’ skill?!” “I used Mimic to memorize it a moment ago. While I’m limited to three minutes each time I use Mimic, I can maintain this without using the move until then.” “I still can’t believe you can Mimic such a move…” “It appears that while I can Mimic it, I can’t turn into a small dragon like him. But I can Mimic the skill to divide myself. It’s quite interesting.” “But Seiya, I thought that Mimic used a lot of MP.” “I managed to reduce the MP consumption by one-fifth thanks to my training. That still doesn’t change the fact that it consumes a colossal amount of MP, though. If I could, I’d like to return to the underworld and perfect my magic, but…” Seiya glances at me, but I’m already on the verge of exploding. “You think you can just learn this ‘divide’ skill, then go home?! You’ve got to be kidding me! More importantly, is that even something you should be doing at a time like this?!” After I shout, the four Seiyas regroup and fuse into one. “Seiya, did you not see what just happened?! Flashika’s dead!” “…And?” “What do you mean ‘and’?!” I can no longer suppress the feelings welling up in the pit of my stomach. “I-I can’t just draw a line between the two worlds like you again! For the people living here right now, this is reality! If I get injured, it hurts. If someone dies, it’s sad.” “What’s the point in saving an illusion?” “I don’t care if it’s all an illusion! If there are people to save, I want to save them! Don’t you?” “It doesn’t make any sense to.” While Seiya and I argue, Cerceus taps me on the shoulder. “P-psst. Rista… Look.” “What do you want?!” I scream out of frustration, but when I look in the direction Cerceus is pointing, I fall speechless. A massive crack is crawling up the magic-sealing stone that the demon priests are surrounding. It’s far deeper and more profound than the first fissure, and I can hear the stone crackling even now as the slits spread across it like a spiderweb. “It’s going to crack open! The magic-sealing stone is going to break!” The instant somebody mutters those words, I hear a loud shattering noise and the crystalline stone crumbles into dust! Immediately, an overpowering ominous aura fills the room. And then… “I-is that…Lucifer Crowe?!” At first glance, she looks like a winged goddess. She has a penetrating gaze but beautiful features and milky-white skin. However, the majority of her body is covered in feathers like a bird, and she has talons attached to her delicate legs. I uncontrollably tremble before the sinister, powerful aura emitting from the birdlike demon’s body. The demons in the room begin to kneel before her as if they had sensed her overwhelming magic power as well. Anyway, I can’t help but wonder what her stats are like, so I use Scan. Wh-what stats! They really are on par with a Demon Lord’s! Judging by the oohing and aahing, it seems that Chaos Machina, Eraser, and the others have used Scan as well. “Marvelous, marvelous, maaarvelous. What marvelous stats! They are far higher than even the former Demon Lord Xenosload’s!” “The mana she’s absorbing must have increased her magic powers even more.” Seiya frowns as he listens to their conversation. “What the hell…?” “Y-you’re feeling a little uneasy, too, huh, Seiya?! Was resurrecting her really the right thing to do?” “No, not that… I had no idea the former Demon Lord’s name was Xenosload. I better write that down before I forget.” “…?! Who cares about that right now?!” I didn’t know, either, but…anyway…Seiya sure looks calm. Did he see her stats?! He’s acting way too laidback, even more so than usual! As I sink to the depths of despair, Lucifer Crowe slowly walks toward us. Rosalie yells: “Lucifer Crowe! We thank you for awakening from your deep slumber! Please save us—both demonkind and mankind—from the dragonewts!” But she passes right by Rosalie, ignoring her, and approaches Eraser and Chaos Machina. Chaos Machina holds out her hand while Eraser reverently bows his head. “Now that Xenosload is dead, we demons swear our allegiance to our new Lord, Lucifer Crowe.” “…I see. Xenosload is no more.” Her voice is cold yet possesses an empress’s dignity. Eraser waits on her while answering: “Xenosload was killed by the dragonewts while you were sealed away.” “Oh? He lost to mere lizards?” “Gaeabrande is currently under the rule of the wielder of the holy sword Igzasion, Dragon Lord Mash Dragonight, and his dragonewts. Even now, they have infiltrated our base…” Eraser explains to Lucifer Crowe how Paradura snuck inside the barrier until she eventually glares at the building’s entrance with a distant gaze. “I wish to know more about this world, but…we can finish this conversation after I dispose of that dragonewt.” “Ohhh!!” The demons let out excited shouts when they hear those words. Walking with an air of regality, Lucifer Crowe opens the door and marches outside with the demons in tow. Rosalie and the other humans soon follow behind. Sh-she’s so confident and courageous! She’s way more heroic than Seiya! “Come on, Seiya! Let’s go! We can’t let the demons show us up like that!” “I don’t mind going to watch, but I’m not going to fight. I plan on watching Lucifer Crowe’s battle from a safe distance while hiding.” “What kind of Hero does that?! Whatever! Let’s just go!” “All right, but before we go, I have to ask just one last time… Are you sure you don’t want a cork?” “Yes, dammit!” I then grab the motivationally challenged Hero by the hand and drag him out the door.